Chapter 12 Outline Recovery and Rebirth: The Age of the Renaissance I.Meaning and Characteristics of the Renaissance A.

Urban Society 1.As a result of its commercial preeminence and political evolution, northern Italy by the mid-fourteenth century was mostly a land of independent cities that dominated the country districts around them. 2.These city-states became the centers of Italian political, economic, and social life. 3.A secular spirit emerged as increasing wealth created new possibilities for the enjoyment of worldly things. B.Age of Recovery 1.The Renaissance was an age of recovery from the calamitous fourteenth century 2.Italy and Europe began a slow process of recuperation from the effects of the Black Death, political disorder, and economic recession 3.Italian intellectuals became intensely interested in the Greco-Roman culture of the ancient Mediterranean world. 4.Affected activities as diverse as politics and art and led to new attempts to reconcile the pagan philosophy of the Greco-Roman world with Christian thought, as wells as new ways of viewing human beings. D.Recovery of the Individual 1.Men can do all things if they will 2.A high regard for human dignity and worth and a realization of individual potentially created a new social ideal of the well-rounded personality or universal person who was capable of achievements in many areas of life. II.Making of Renaissance Society A. Economic Recovery 1. Hanseatic League 1.As early as the thirteenth century, a number of North German coastaltowns had formed a commercial and military association known as theHansa, or Hanseatic League. 2. More than 80 cities belonged to the Hansa.

3. It had a monopoly on northern European trade in timber, fish, grain, metals, honey, and wines. Its southern outlet in Flanders, became the economic crossroads of Europe in the fourteenth century, serving as the meeting place between Hanseatic merchants and the Flanders Fleet of Venice. 2. Wool and Silk 1. By the beginning of the fifteenth century, the Florentine woolen industry had begun to recover. 2. Italian cities began to develop and expand luxury industries, especially silk, glasses, and hand worked items in metal and precious stones. 3. Banking a. The House of Medici was the greatest bank in Europe, with branches in Venice, Milan, Rome, Avignon, Bruges, London, and Lyons. b.The Medici were also the principal bankers for the papacy, a position that produced big profits and influence at the papal court. c.After a rather sudden decline at the end of the century due to poor leadership and a series of bad loans. B.Social Changes 1.Domination of the Nobility a.2-3 percent of the populations in most countries were nobles, they managed to dominate society as they had done in the Middle Ages, serving as military officers and holding important political posts as well as advising the king. b.Members of the aristocracy pursued education as the means to maintain their role in government. 2. Courtly Society in Castigliones Courtier a.The Renaissance ideal of the well-developed personality became a social ideal of the aristocracy. Nobles were expected to make good impressions; while being modest, they should not hide their accomplishments but show them with grace. b.The aim was to serve his prince in an effective and honest way. 3.Peasants and Townspeople a.They constituted 85-90 percent of the European population.

b.At the top of urban society were the patricians, whose wealth from capitalistic enterprises in trade, industry, and banking enabled them to dominate their urban communities economically, socially, and politically. Then the petty burghers, and finally the propertyless workers. 4.Slavery a.Slavery existed, but had declined for economic reasons, and had been replaced by serfdom by the ninth century. b.Slaves were used as skilled workers, making handcrafted goods for their masters, or as household workers. Girls served as nursemaids, and boys as playmates. c.Their owners for humanitarian reasons had freed many slaves, and the major source of slaves dried up as the Black Sea slave markets were closed to Italian traders after the Turks conquered the Byzantine Empire. 5.Families a.A family meant the extended household of parents, children, and servants and could also include grandparents, widowed mothers, and even unmarried sisters. b.Parents, often to strengthen business or family ties, arranged marriages. To do so, the parents of the wife would pay a dowry to determine their status in society. c.The father-husband was the center of the Italian family. III.Italian States in the Renaissance A.Major States: Milan, Venice, Florence, Naples, and the Papal States 1.The republic of Florence dominated the region of Tuscany. It was governed by a small merchant oligarchy that mani 2.The Papal States lay in central Italy. Nominally under the political control of the popes, papal residence in Avignon and the Great Schism had enabled individual cities and territories to become independent of papal authority. 3. The kingdom of Naples, which encompassed most of southern Italy and usually the island of Sicily, was fought over by the French and the Aragonese until the latter established their domination in the 15th century. Examples of Federigo da Montefeltro and Isabella dEste 1. Federigo rule Urbino from 1444 to 1482, and received a classical education typical of the famous humanist school in Mantua run by Vittorino da Feltre. 2. He was a rather unusual condottiere by 15th century standards as he was reliable and honest.

3. Isabella was the most famous of the Renaissance-ruling women. She was thedaughter of the duke of Ferrara, and married Francesco Gonzaga. 4. She was known for her intelligence and political wisdom, and attracted artistsand intellectuals to the Mantua court and were responsible for amassing one of the finest libraries in all of Italy. C. Birth of Modern Diplomacy 1. There were ambassadors in the Middle Ages, but they were used only on a temporary basis. This concept of an ambassador changed because of the political situation. 2. A large number of states existed, many so small that their security was easily threatened by their neighbors. To survive, the Italian states began to send resident diplomatic agents to each other to ferret out useful information. D. Machiavellis Prince 1. His major concerns were the acquisition and expansion of political power as the means to restore and maintain order in his time. 2. From Machiavellis point of view, a princes attitude toward power must be based on an understanding of human nature, which he perceived as basically self-centered. IV. Intellectual Renaissance in Italy A. Humanism 1. Petrarch A. (1304-1374) He has been called the father of Italian Renaissance humanism. b. He rejected his fathers desire to become a lawyer and took up a literary career instead. He was the first intellectual to characterize the Middle Ages as a period of darkness, promoting the mistaken belief that medieval culture was ignorant of classical antiquity. 2. Leonardo Bruni a. (1370-1444) He was a humanist, Florentine patriot, and chancellor of the city, wrote a biography of Cicero. b. One of the first Italian humanists to gain a thorough knowledge of Greek and became an enthusiastic pupil of Manuel Chrysoloras, a Byzantine scholar. 3. Lorenzo Valla a. (1407-1457) He was educated in Latin and Greek, and eventually achieved his chief ambition of becoming a papal secretary.

b. Wrote-The Elegances of the Latin Language, which was an effort to purify medieval Latin and restore Latin to its proper position over the vernacular. pulated the apparently republican government

4. Ficino and the Platonic Academy a. (1433-1499) Ficino was one the academys leaders. He dedicated his life to the translation of Plato and the exposition of the Platonic philosophy known as Neo-Platonism. b. The Platonic Academy was an informal discussion group. 5. Pico Della Mirandola a. (1463-1494) The most prominent magi in the late fifteenth century. b. He produced one of the most famous pieces of writing of the Renaissance, the Oration in the Dignity of Man. Pico took an avid interest in Hermetic philosophy, accepting it as the science of the Divine B. Education 1. Vittorino da Feltre and the Liberal Studies a. (1378-1446) He founded a secondary school at Mantua in 1423 when the ruler of a small Italian state wanted education for his children. b. The Liberal Studies referred to the Renaissance view of the value of the liberal arts influenced by a treatise on education. IT included history, moral philosophy, eloquence, letters, poetry, mathematics, astronomy, and music.

2. Pietro Paolo Vergerios Concerning Character a. The work stressed the importance of the liberal arts as the key to true freedom, enabling individuals to reach their full potential. b. He stated that the purpose was not to create great scholars but rather to produce complete citizens who could participate in the civic life of their communities. C. Humanism and History 1. Secularization of History

a. Humanists were responsible for secularizing the writing of history. They reduced the role of miracles in historical interpretation because they took a new approach to sources. b. They wanted to use documents and exercised their newly developed critical skills in examining them. 2. Francesco Guicciardini A. (1483-1540) Some Renaissance scholars have called him the greatest historian between Tacitus, and Voltaire and Gibbon. b. To him, the purpose of writing history was to teach lessons, he was so impressed by the complexity of his historical events that he felt those lessons were not always obvious. D. Impact of Printing1.Johannes Gutenbergs Bible A. Gothengurg had invented the first printer with hand-carved wooden blocks creating movable type. The Bible was the first true book in the West produced from it. 2. Scholarly Research and Lay Readership a. The printing of books encouraged the development of scholarly research and the desire to attain knowledge. Printing facilitated cooperation among scholars and helped produced standardized and definitive tests. b. Without the printing press, the new religious ideas of the Reformation would never have spread as rapidly. V. Artistic Renaissance A. Early Renaissance 1. Masaccio a. (1401-1428) He demonstrated a more realistic relationship between figures and landscape, and visual representation of the laws of perspective, a new realist style of painting was born. 2. Uccello a.(1397-1475) In his work, figure became mere stage props to show off his mastery of the laws of perspective. 3. Botticelli a. (1445-1510) had an interest in Greek and Roman mythology, which was well, reflected, in one of his most famous works, Primavera. 4. Donatello

a. (1386-1466) He spent time in Rome studying and copying statues of antiquity. His subsequent work in Florence reveals how well he had mastered the essence of what he saw. 5. Brunelleschi A. (1377-1446) was a friend of Donatello and accompanied him to Rome. He drew much inspiration from the architectural monuments of Roman antiquity. 6. Piero Della Francesca a. (1410-1492) provided accurate representations as wells as a sense of both the power and the wealth of the rulers of Urbino. B. High Renaissance 1. Leonardo da Vinci-(1452-1519) represents a transitional figure in the shift to High Renaissance principles. He carried on the 15thcentury experimental tradition by studying everything. 2. Raphael a. (1483-1520) Raphael blossomed as a painter at 25; he was already regarded as one of Italys best painters. 3. Michelangelo a. (1475-1564) He was an accomplished painter, sculptor, and architect, and was another giant of the High Renaissance. Neo-Platonism inspired him. 4. Bramante a. (1444-1514) He came from Urbino. He designed a small temple on the supposed site of Saint Peters martyrdom. Inspired by antiquity, Bramante had recaptured the grandeur of ancient Rome. b. Artist and Social Status: Artist as Hero 1. In the early Renaissance, artists started out as apprentices and worked themselves up to masters. Here, artists were still considered as artisans. However at the end of the 15th century, the talented individuals were artistic geniuses with creative energies akin to the divine. D. Northern Artistic Renaissance 1. Jan Van Eyck a. (1390-1441) He was among the first to use oil paint, a medium that enabled the artist to use a varied ranged of colors and makes changes to create fine details. 2. Albrecht Durer

a. (1471-1528) He wrote detailed treatises on the laws of perspective and Renaissance theories of proportion. E. Music in the Renaissance 1. Dufay a. (1400-1474)the most important composer of his time. He was the first house secular tunes to replace Gregorian chants as the fixed melody that served as a basis for the Mass. 2. Madrigal a. The chief form of secular music. The Renaissance madrigal was a poem set to music, and its origins were in the 14thcentury Italian courts. VI. European State in the Renaissance A. New Monarchies 1. Renaissance States was the time in which recovery set it, and attempts were made to reestablish the centralized power of monarchial governments. B. Growth of the French Monarchy 1.Charles VII and the Taille a. (1422-1461) He was crowned king at Reims. He established a royal army composed of cavalry and archers. b. A taille is an annual direct tax usually on land or property, without any need for further approval from the Estates-General. Losing control of the purse meant less power for this parliamentary body. 2. Louis XI and Commerce a. (1461-1483) He was known as the Spider because of his wily and devious ways. By retaining taille, he secured a sound, regular source of income. C. England: Civil War and New Monarchy 1. War of the Roses a. Broke out in 1450s. It pitted the ducal house of Lancaster, who symbol was a red rose, against the ducal house of York, whose symbol was a white rose. 2. Henry VII and the Tudors a. (1485-1509) Henry VII worked to reduce internal discussion and establish a strong monarchial government. He ended private wars of the nobility by abolishing livery and maintenance, the practice

by which wealthy aristocrats maintained private armies of followers dedicated to the service of their lord. D. Unification of Spain 1. Ferdinand and Isabella a. The marriage between the two was a dynastic union of two rulers, not a political union. They recognized the importance of controlling the Catholic Church, with its vast power and wealth. b. They also pursued a policy of strict religious uniformity.2.Expulsion of Muslims and Jews a. The increased persecution in the 14thcentury led the majority of Spanish Jews to convert to Christianity. They were largely tolerated in medieval Spain. 3. Inquisition a. Complaints about the sincerity of these Jewish convert prompted Ferdinand and Isabella to ask the pope to introduce the Inquisition into Spain in 1478. b. It worked with cruel efficiency to guarantee the orthodoxy of the converts, but had no authority over practicing Jews. E. Holy Roman Empire: Success of the Habsburgs 1.Unlike France, England, and Spain, the Holy Roman Empire failed to develop a strong monarchial authority. The Habsburg, though, was very successful. Not military, but because of well-executed policy of dynastic marriages. 2. Maximilian attempted to centralize the administration by creating new institutions common to the entire empire. F. Struggle for Strong Monarchy in Eastern Europe 1. In Eastern Europe, rulers struggles to achieve the centralization of their territorial states but faced serious obstacles. 2. Through their control of the Sejm or national diet, the magnates reduced the peasantry to serfdom by 1511 and established the right to elect their kings. The Polish kings proved unable to establish a strong royal authority. 3. Since the 13thcentury, Russia had been under the domination of the Mongols. Gradually, the princes of Moscow rose to prominence by using their close relationship to the Mongol khans to increase wealth. G. Ottoman Turks and the End of Byzantium

1.The steadily advancing Ottoman Turks increasingly threatened Eastern Europe. The Byzantine Empire had, of course, served as a buffer between the Muslim Middle East and the Latin West for centuries. It was severely weakened by the sack of Constantinople in 1204 and its occupation by the West. VII. Church in the Renaissance A. Heresy and Reform 1. John Wyclifs Lollards a. (1328-1384) His disgust with clerical corruption led him to a far-ranging attack on papal authority and medieval Christian beliefs and practices. b. Wyclif alleged that there was no basis in Scripture for papal claims of temporal authority and advocated that the popes be stripped of their authority and advocated that the popes be stripped of their authority and their property. The followers were named Lollards. 2. John Hus A. (1374-1415) He urged the elimination of the worldliness and corruption of the clergy and attacked the excessive power of the papacy within the Catholic Church. 3. The Doctrine of Sacrosanct a. It stated that a general council of the church received its authority from God; hence every Christian, including the pope, was subject to its authority. 4. Pius II and Execrabilis a. Pope Pius II issued the papal bull Execrabilis, condemning appeals to a council over the head of a pope as heretical. B. Renaissance Papacy 1. Sixtus IV and Alexander VI a. Pope Sixtus IV (1471-1484) made five of his nephew cardinals and gave them an abundance of church offices to build up their finances. b. Alexander VI (1492-1503) was a member of the Borgia family who was known for his debauchery and sensuality. 2. Julius II and the New Saint Peters a.(1503-1513) Was most involved in war and politics. Known as the fiery warrior-pope, and seen as a spiritual leader.

3. Leo X and Raphael a. Leo X (1513-1521) was a patron of Renaissance culture, not as a matter of policy, but as a deeply involved participant. b. Raphael was commissioned to do paintings, and the construction of Saint Peters was accelerated, as Rome became the literary and artistic center of the Renaissance.